Interlocking Storage Bins in FreeCAD

Needing some storage bins for the garage I came up with the idea for self-aligning stackable bins. Cut from 3/4" ply, the trick is the 45deg on the bottom panel and inside edges. My first attempt was a quick hand drawing and somewhere along the way I ended up with misaligned pieces. So in order to ensure my dimensions made sense I figured I’d FreeCAD it up. It’s pretty simple but still parametric, able to adjust for material thickness and inner dimensions. Plus, I figured if the design did work out (so far it’s looking good!) I could CNC batches of them, that would only need the 45def chamfers routed and final assembly. Would also update to include hand holds.

This is also one of my first projects going in on the build in Assembly workbench and I cannot say I’m sold. I’ve got a very specific design style that is very parametrically driven and so far I haven’t found a workflow that works well with this. I’m going to keep trying for smaller projects like this, but for anything serious I’m sticking with Assembly4 (Way to ditch github Zolko!), which I find more reliable for parametric assemblies.

Design Files⌗

Inset Box (inset_box.fcstd 137K)

All files licensed CC-BY-4.0